Oil on the Water

Breaking News and Views about the Gulf Oil Spill.

One of the most heart breaking refrains I have heard during my two long days in Louisiana is that the BP oil disaster threatens to destroy “an entire way of life.” For shrimpers, oystermen, and fishermen, that means the loss of the only vocations they’ve ever known. For the people of New Orleans (many of whom have not yet been directly impacted by blowout) it would mean something different: the loss of a regional style of cooking that is embedded in the region’s culture.

New Orleans’ Cajun and Creole cuisines are among the most unique in the nation, thanks, in large part, to the prolific and diverse seafoods that come from …more

In the southern marshes and swamplands euphemistically called Barataria “Bay,” local Louisiana fishermen refer to BP as “Bayou Polluter” – and that was before the April 20 blowout of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig operated by the oil giant. Fishermen say BP spills oil every year and they point out marshes still dead from dispersants that were sprayed there.

If President Obama has a say, it’s “Better Pay-up” for the environmental and economic damages that will stem from the uncontrolled leak, likely at 20,000 barrels (840,000 gallons) a day, according to satellite imagery.

By Beth Buczynski, Care2

Our partners over at Care2 have shared the following Gulf spill update:

Throughout the five weeks that crude oil has been flowing freely into the Gulf of Mexico, there have been allegations, some fairly well substantiated, that BP isn’t being totally transparent about the extent of the catastrophe.

It has taken weeks to get an accurate idea of how many barrels of oil a day are leaking from the remnants of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform. A key government panel now estimates that around 12,000 – 25,000 barrels are leaking from the bottom of the sea each day, dwarfing …more

This story appears courtesy of The Pump Handle.

As of Saturday afternoon, May 29th, ten oil spill clean-up workers had been admitted to West Jefferson Medical Center (WJMC) in Marrero, Louisiana. All but two have been hospitalized suffering from chest pains, dizziness, headaches, and nausea. One crewmember admitted on the 29th had fallen and hit his head on a stair after a wave mixed with oil had washed onto a deck, hospital spokesperson Taslin Alonzo told me. The other, who was working on what Alonzo called "an oil rig," was suffering from hypertension. All crewmembers hospitalized have long experience working on the water, according to Alonzo.

The two crewmembers hospitalized on May 28th had been working on the water …more

Every day we get worse news about the Gulf oil spill. There's likely more oil spewing out of the Deepwater well than previously thought, the dispersants being used are as toxic as the oil, and now the spill is heading for open water. All over the country people are enraged, saddened, and wondering what they can do. Those who are either in the Gulf or went there to volunteer are, in most cases, either being sent away or given work they're ill-prepared (or protected) to do.

As oil continues to flow unabated from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico at what’s estimated to be a rate of at least 210,000 gallons a day, a suite of extraordinary measures are being deployed to both staunch and mitigate the underwater gusher. While much attention has been paid to BP’s efforts to build an oil collection dome and drill a relief well (estimated to take 90 days to complete), far less has been said about the chemical solution being …more